This module aims to introduce you to, and develop your understanding of, some of the major theoretical approaches that underpin and inform contemporary film studies. These approaches were originally developed in subject areas such as English Literature, Philosophy, and Psychology and then taken up within, and applied to, our discipline. We will be reading film through a wide range of these frameworks, encouraging close analysis of theoretical and critical issues in relation to specific film texts.
‘World cinema’ remains a highly contested category in film studies. The grouping of films from around the non-western world into this category has come to represent both the flattening impulses of a universalizing (neo)liberalism and the political potential for international coalition-building. Debates about ‘world cinema’ remind us how film-viewing plays a role in affective negotiations of global culture, international community, crisis response, and human rights. Since the term ‘world cinema’ has always simultaneously invoked industrial, generic, and aesthetic categories, our exploration of the field finds geopolitical fault lines in various critical discourses: art cinema aesthetics, humanism, neo-neorealism, the touristic gaze, and revolutionary cinema. This module examines a wide range of fictional feature films, including the work of Sara Gómez, Mati Diop, Akira Kurosawa, Samira Makhmalbaf, and Satyajit Ray, among others. By reassessing this thorny category of ‘world cinema’ in light of globalization, feminism, and black liberation, this module asks: What is cinema’s role in world-making? To whose world does cinema belong?
This module is devoted to understanding the origins, development and decline of Italian Neorealism, a cinematic movement that broadly lasted from 1942 to approximately 1952 (although its influence continued long afterwards). The focus will be on a diverse group of films and the cultural, social and political context in which they were made and exhibited, namely Italy during the final years of Mussolini’s Fascist regime and in the years following the end of World War Two.
This core module will build on what students have learned about Hollywood in first year modules (such as Film History and Screen Technologies) by expanding their knowledge about Hollywood in what has been deemed its ‘classic’ period. The module will illustrate important aspects about the industrial system that dominated Hollywood filmmaking from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, including style, genre, and stars. By first focusing on Hollywood as an industry, examining the practices and cultures of film production, the module will then consider its ideological influence by promoting specific American values and traditions through political issues and ideology, such as race and ethnicity. The module will conclude by examining various shifts that led to the post-classical era, preparing students for the optional module, Postclassical Hollywood and the third year core module, Film Aesthetics.
This is a survey module, taught through a selection of topics as opposed to a purely historical approach to this period of filmmaking. Classical Hollywood encompasses thousands of films, hundreds of stars, multiple genres, big studios, small production companies, various technological and industrial transformations, and socio-cultural alterations within American society. It is impossible in one term to cover every aspect of this period of filmmaking; however, this module will survey important contexts that will help students reach set learning outcomes.